February 04, 2014

Cartoon: The 10-Hour School Day

BACKGROUNDChildren could go to school for ten hours a day and on Saturday mornings under a radical shake-up of secondary education. Education Minister Michael Gove wants school days to run from 7.30am to 5.30pm to improve pupils’ performance and enable them to study vocational courses alongside core academic subjects. He also wants sites to open on Saturdays and to increase terms by two weeks, to a total of 40 weeks a year. Read more >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Matt from the Daily Telegraph shows two schoolgirls using their mobile phones (note that ties are often part of the school uniform in Britain, even for girls). One says to the other, "I don't know if my phone battery will last that long."

COMMENTI think teachers in particular will appreciate this cartoon. The mobile phone has to be the curse of the modern classroom.

GRAMMARNote that we say a 'ten-hour school day' and not a 'ten-hours school day'. The rule is that when numbers are used as the first part of a compound adjective, they should be in the singular and have a hyphen connecting them to the noun which follows. • The president of the company gave a 10-minute speech to the Board of Directors.

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Cartoon: The 10-Hour School Day

BACKGROUNDChildren could go to school for ten hours a day and on Saturday mornings under a radical shake-up of secondary education. Education Minister Michael Gove wants school days to run from 7.30am to 5.30pm to improve pupils’ performance and enable them to study vocational courses alongside core academic subjects. He also wants sites to open on Saturdays and to increase terms by two weeks, to a total of 40 weeks a year. Read more >>

THE CARTOONThe cartoon by Matt from the Daily Telegraph shows two schoolgirls using their mobile phones (note that ties are often part of the school uniform in Britain, even for girls). One says to the other, "I don't know if my phone battery will last that long."

COMMENTI think teachers in particular will appreciate this cartoon. The mobile phone has to be the curse of the modern classroom.

GRAMMARNote that we say a 'ten-hour school day' and not a 'ten-hours school day'. The rule is that when numbers are used as the first part of a compound adjective, they should be in the singular and have a hyphen connecting them to the noun which follows. • The president of the company gave a 10-minute speech to the Board of Directors.